|
| Adoption Resources |
|
Advertisers |
|
| Back to Vietnam Home Page
| |
 | Vietnam Adoption Odyssey
by Martha Wiederkehr |
Our adoption of two teenage orphan girls from Vietnam was like an odyssey working through the various channels of Vietnamese and U.S. bureaucracies, as we completed the adoption independently, not through an adoption agency. It took 14 months from A to Z.
We already supported the two children for several years through East to West, an American humanitarian organization in DaNang, Vietnam whose head office for the United States is located in Oakland, Calif. This organization is active in various projects, including irrigation, agriculture, cleaning water for villagers, and building schools and medical clinics. This organization also runs an orphanage of approximately 200 children.
We visited Vietnam and DaNang several times and had the opportunity to meet “our” children, which also included a boy who was now too old to be adopted. We took them out by minivan with a translator to visit their remaining families, then had lunch and shopped.
The girls were now teenagers at 13 and 14 years old, and they lived at the Village of Hope Orphanage since the ages of 7 and 8. The orphanage village was a rather nice place and the children were well cared for, compared to the harsh life they had before. They got three meals a day and went to school six days a week. The older ones also had the opportunity to learn a vocational trade like woodworking and gardening for the boys, and sewing for the girls. A few make it to higher education and attend University. The other ones eventually leave the orphanage and support themselves by integrating into society.
After thinking about adoption and visiting again in November 2000, we decided to explore the possibility of legally adopting the two girls. Since the boy was too old we could not adopt him and now he is attending University. First, I talked to the vice-director of the organization’s office in DaNang to approach the girls and find out if they were even interested in moving to America. The answer came back affirmative. Then the remaining family members, including a grandmother, grandfather and older sister had to be consulted to find out it they would agree to release the children for foreign adoption and sign the necessary official papers. They said they would.
On our side, I had to find an agency to conduct the so-called homestudy, which is required in all adoptions —domestic and international. This is where I ran into the first obstacle because all of the large agencies said they did not do identifying adoptions, where the people involved already know each other. Most of them only dealt with the adoption of babies.
After calling around, checking the yellow pages of the phone book and also the Internet, I found an agency in San Francisco that would do the independent homestudy. We were contacted by a social worker and the homestudy was started. It involved four interviews with the social worker, including one at our home, plus a consultation about transracial adoptions, fingerprinting for the FBI, references from three friends, consulting our attorney, proving our income and obtaining medical examinations.
The homestudy was completed and approved by the San Francisco office at the end of May 2001. Then it had to be written up and duly legalized, first by the Notary Public, then by the Secretary of State and finally translated and legalized again by the Vietnamese Consulate General in San Francisco.
In the meantime, I asked the consultant for the requirements for adopting children from Vietnam. Up came a long list of documents, all certified copies of the same papers already submitted for the homestudy. We also needed the identical documents relating to the children starting with their birth certificates to their current information. In addition, they also wanted a letter from us to the People’s Committee of the Republic of Vietnam, the highest authority in the country, application to adopt and commitment to send yearly progress reports.
The next hurdle was to find somebody in the DaNang area who could assemble the documents pertaining to the girls. After contacting the Vietnam office of the Humanitarian Organization, they attempted to help until it became evident how much work was involved. Then I wrote to the U.S. Embassy, the U.S. Consulate General in Vietnam, and various government offices in Washington, D.C., all of which were unable to help or refer us to somebody who could. Finally, we found an independent businessman, Mr. Hai, who was an acquaintance of the director of the orphanage. He agreed to take on the job.
At about the same time, we filed the preliminary U.S. Immigration form, I-600A, with the Immigration and Naturalization Services office in San Francisco, which is now called the Citizenship and Immigration Services. It included mailing in photocopies of our own documents and being fingerprinted for the FBI. Then, we thought we had the papers ready and mailed everything by FedEx to Vietnam. Alas, two weeks later the answer from DaNang arrived, saying that they actually needed two sets of papers, as the two girls were born in two different provinces and each province would need a separate set of paperwork.
So back to the drawing board — new documents had to be ordered which meant obtaining them from California, Canada and Switzerland. We planned to take care of the paperwork in Switzerland personally. So before we left for Europe, I mailed the two marriage certificates to Ottawa for legalization and certification. I also mailed a packet of papers to the Secretary of State in Sacramento for legalization. While in Switzerland, we obtained the birth certificates and delivered them to the Vietnamese Embassy in Berne.
We came back from Europe on Oct.10 and the papers from Canada were waiting. The documents from Sacramento were also waiting, however, there was a notary stamp missing on one of them and the legalization was incorrect on another one.
So back to the Notary Public, who by then knew us personally. The lady was surprised and shook her head at our persistence in this matter. She mentioned that we must really want these girls if we were going to all this trouble. We promised her that we would introduce her to the children, if and when the plan worked out.
By now, several weeks had gone by and Mr. Hai in Vietnam was getting impatient to receive the missing documents. In order to save time, we drove to Sacramento and had the legalizations corrected right there. Two days later, we drove to San Francisco to submit the papers to the Consulate General of Vietnam for translation and legalization. A few days before, we received word from the U.S. Department of Justice regarding their favorable decision on the advance processing of the orphan petition. The letter also said our papers were forwarded to Ho Chi Minh City where the processing would be completed by the U.S. authorities. A week later, the completed papers arrived from the Vietnamese Consulate in San Francisco and we mailed them immediately by FedEx to DaNang.
This time the answer came back that all seemed to be OK and we should plan to be in Vietnam no later than the end of November in order to file the papers with the Vietnamese authorities there. This had to be done in person.
So off we went and installed ourselves in a small hotel within walking distance of the organization’s head office where we met Mr. Hai the next morning. As this gentleman does not speak English, the office manager offered to be our translator and accompany us to the various government offices. She was a capable and knowledgeable lady who spoke excellent English.
The first thing said was that our medical reports from the states apparently were not quite good enough or complete and we should do these over right then and there. Within half an hour we drove first to a psychiatric hospital. One-by-one we were interviewed by a doctor and given some tests with flashcards. It seems we passed and could go on to the next hospital for the medical examination. This was a large complex with buildings on three sides and a large courtyard in the middle. We were called into different offices where we were asked about our hearing and memory, then our eyesight was checked. They also checked our teeth and several dentists and assistants were called to look into our mouths to admire our dental work. This was the funniest thing, as we are retirement age, our teeth are in pretty good condition with a full set and various repairs done throughout the years. I can understand, however, as the Vietnamese people are probably not used to seeing this type of art dental work. Actually, a lot of people our age have practically no teeth left.
We also had to have chest x-rays taken without any protective covering. Finally, we were finished and all seemed to be OK, only the medical reports had to be written up and signed.
The next morning we drove to the courthouse in DaNang to submit all the documents to the Department of Justice. We had to sign a whole new batch of papers, some of which we already had done once before. However, in the end the Vietnamese authorities were satisfied and we could leave.
Two days later, we drove to Tam Ky in Quang-Nam Province, two hours south of DaNang and did the same process for Them, our youngest daughter. This time there were no unexpected surprises and all went smoothly.
A few days later, my husband and I left Vietnam for a short tour of Southern Laos then returned home, where we arrived before Christmas. Just after New Year’s, we received word that the decision by the Department of Justice in DaNang was expected within weeks and we should once again prepare for our next trip to Vietnam. This absolutely had to happen before Hai’s birthday, Jan. 28, when she would turn 15 and be ineligible for adoption. So again, I scrambled for convenient flights to Vietnam, this time made more difficult because of the holidays in the United States, and especially the important TET holiday in Vietnam, the New Year, which in 2002 would fall on Feb. 12. We were lucky and found a flight from San Francisco to DaNang via Taipei and Ho Chi Minh City without staying overnight anywhere. After 20-plus hours of flying, we finally arrived.
Four days before Hai’s birthday, we assembled at the courthouse in DaNang with Hai, her sister, grandfather, step-grandmother and our translator to sign the final papers before the Giving and Receiving Ceremony. The judge arrived with a younger associate and two ladies from the Department of Justice. They checked all the documents again, then the judge gave a speech about our duties as adoptive parents. In turn, I addressed the panel and promised that we would do our utmost to make Hai happy and give her a good life and future in the United States. I also said she would not forget her native culture and we would visit Vietnam at least once a year.
Then we presented some gifts to the people at the Department of Justice. It was a rather festive affair. There was the red Vietnamese flag with the yellow star, and on the wall behind a bust of Ho Chi Minh, made of white marble. Next to it, there was a plaque with Hai and our names on it. Finally, the answer by the People’s Committee came down and all was approved. We were handed the official Decree of Adoption. After exchanging congratulations all around, we took the family members to lunch. A few days later, we did the ceremony over again at Tam Ky in the Wuang-Nam Province. According to Vietnamese law, we were now the legal parents of two beautiful, young daughters.
Now, Mr. Hai applied for the girls’ Vietnamese passports, which took another few days. Then we were ready to travel with the children to Ho Chi Minh city to go through the U.S. process. As the flights were all full, we hired a minivan and driver. Mr. Hai promised to come along as well. It took two days to travel to Ho Chi Minh City with one overnight stay in Nha Trang, a seaside resort town. In Ho Chi Minh City we had a hotel with three rooms on busy Hai Ba Trung Street, not far from the U.S. Embassy complex.
We already got a taste of things to come, as no one traveling with us spoke English, including the girls. The children tried hard, and we did have some fun together and made ourselves understood with the help of hands and feet. The hotel staff was also helpful.
We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on a Sunday afternoon and the next morning we left the kids at the hotel and drove to the Immigration and Naturalization Services office located on the ninth floor of the Saigon Centre. After checking the girls’ documents, we were asked to bring the girls back to the office. Then a whole set of photocopies had to be made for Hai and after that we settled down to wait.
In the meantime, several other people had come in, some with small Vietnamese babies and other younger children. A 3-year-old toddler was the star and our girls had fun carrying him around. Then it was our turn for the interview with the Immigration and Naturalization Services officer who spoke fluent Vietnamese. It was not at all as intimidating as we had been told previously, and our girls answered all of his questions to full satisfaction.
The officer said we could now go for the children’s medical exams and inoculations. In the afternoon we went to two different hospitals for the injections and medical exams and everything went well.
The next morning, we stood in line at the front gate of the American Consulate General on Le Duan Boulevard. We were screened and let in. First, we went to a small office and spoke to a nice Vietnamese lady who gave us several long forms to fill in for the children’s Visa applications. Unfortunately, the photographs we made in DaNang were not to U.S. specifications and had to be redone. I asked for a list of photographers in the neighborhood.
But first we were led to the office next door where a U.S. Vice Consul interviewed the girls, again in fluent Vietnamese. Again, the children answered truthfully and correctly all the questions about their remaining relatives and intentions. The Vice Consul said they had not had a case quite like ours before, as most people adopt babies, not older children.
Now we went to the photo shop and had their pictures taken. After they were developed, we grabbed the copies needed and raced back to the U.S. Consulate. Finally, the woman in charge gave us the important U.S. entry visas with the stern warning to not open the large envelopes until we reached U.S. Immigration at the airport in San Francisco.
The entire process took us approximately 14 months. Most of it we completed on our own. Many people told us adopting these girls was impossible because nobody had done it this way before. No child was ever adopted from this particular orphanage, probably because they were all older children. All this time we never knew for certain if it would work at all, it could have been denied at any level of the process, but with patience, perseverance and a lot of hard work, we prevailed.
We let the children finish the current school year in DaNang, and will travel again to Vietnam in a few weeks to pick them up. After they arrive in the United States, there will be a lot of new tasks and challenges, for them and for us. First we must find proper schools to integrate them into American culture. We will try hard to help them adjust to the new life and help them grow into responsible and productive citizens.
Martha and Otto Wiederkehr were born and raised in Switzerland. The couple met in Canada where they lived for several years before coming to the United States. After retiring in the early 1990s and the death of their only child, the Wiederkehrs began to explore the possibility of adopting the orphan children they sponsored in Vietnam. After maneuvering the difficult process the Wiederkehrs managed to adopt two young Vietnamese girls, Hai and Them. The girls, having lived in the United States for a year-and-a-half, are adjusting to the country and are doing well in school.
|
Back to Vietnam Home Page |
| |
|
